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No Such Thing As A Fish
No Such Thing As A Fish

Little Fish: Jurassic Bark

April 26, 2026 • 31m

Summary

⏱️ 7 min read

Overview

The No Such Thing As A Fish team discusses listener-submitted facts ranging from geographic naming quirks to animal physiology, military logistics, and historic engineering feats. The episode features playful banter about everything from hippo body fat percentages to the invention of Bailey Bridges during WWII, with recurring jokes about things named after people and Dan's career-peak pun about Jurassic Bark.

Silver Lake's Surprising Namesake and the Opening Discussion

The episode begins with a fact about Silver Lake in Los Angeles, which isn't named for the color of its water but rather after Herman Silver, the LA Water Commissioner. This launches a running theme throughout the episode about things named after people rather than what you'd assume. The hosts discuss how common this naming convention is and joke about Andy's long-planned book idea on the subject.

  • Silver Lake in Los Angeles is named after Herman Silver, the Water Commissioner, not the color of the water
  • This becomes a recurring theme about things named after people versus what they sound like
  • The hosts frequently discuss this topic across their shows, with listeners now flooding the inbox with examples
" The terrible thing is, in the inbox of Droppers Align, they're flooding in. I'm now being bounced into doing this book by the sheer number. "

Hippos vs Usain Bolt: Body Fat and Speed

A fascinating discussion emerges about hippopotamus body composition, revealing that hippos have only 2-5% body fat, similar to Usain Bolt at his peak performance (around 8%). This leads to a theoretical race between a hippo and Bolt, with calculations showing Bolt would win a 100-meter race despite his famously slow starts, reaching 44.7 km/h compared to a hippo's 30 km/h.

  • Hippopotamuses have only 2-5% body fat, comparable to Usain Bolt's 8% at peak performance
  • Many animals are much less fatty than people assume, being mostly muscle
  • In a 100-meter race, Usain Bolt would beat a hippo, reaching 44.7 km/h vs the hippo's 30 km/h
  • Usain Bolt was famously a slower starter but faster finisher than other sprinters
  • Bolt would cross the finish line about 2 seconds before a hippo, which is roughly the same amount of time his feet touch the ground during a 100m sprint
" He was actually a surprisingly slow starter, Usain Bolt. Like, he was famous. if his start was as fast as some other 100m runners, he would be even faster. "

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